By Editor In Chief/Lord Of Words Ed M Morris
For awhile now I have been wanting to build one of those neat wood beer bottle caddys that I see for sale online and in some of my local beer shops. But they can run up to and over $50 each. Heck that is a lot of money that I could use on buying actual beer.
I have tools and access to reasonable wood nearby, so I am going to make one on my own. So I hopped onto YouTube and found the following How To video on the DIY PETE channel:
Pete shares his plans for free on his website: Wood Caddy Plans.
One of the things that makes Pete's plan different than many of the plans I found via YouTube, is that Pete actually builds dividers to keep the bottles from banging against each other, as opposed to a single piece of wood that runs down the middle. I may or may not add this feature to mine, depends if I get a jig saw for Father's Day (hint, hint).
Pete also adds what I have seen on just about every version of a Beer Caddy, a mounted bottle opener. I bought one from Amazon by MAGCAP that catches the open caps with magnet, because I hate picking them up and/or stepping on them. It was under $8 and can be picked up here.
I am going to make some changes to Pete's plans for my Caddy: I am going to use pallet boards instead of poplar wood, as I have a ton of them for other projects, and instead of rounded tops, I am going to leave mine straight and cornered. As for the handle, Pete uses a metal pipe and ends, I am on the fence on to use it or a wood dowel. Using the pipe would be easier, just drill the opening and slide in and cap the ends. Done. With the wood, I would have to glue and pressure fit it in place. Might try both and see how it looks and go from there.
I was thinking about using my wood burning tool to add something to the sides, not sure what I would add yet, but I am probably going to add the chalkboard paint to one of the sides.
As for staining the whole project, pallet wood usually has a neat coloring, even after sanding it. I might just use a few coats of clear satin poly for a more rustic look and feel.
Once I have finished the project I will post a follow up video on how it turned out.
If you were building a caddy, how would you do it? Let me know at editorpints @ gmail.com.
Cheers!